Picture it: 1996. Springtime. Generic Suburban High School. Academic Super Bowl after school practice.
[Yes, I really just said that I attended Academic Super Bowl after school practices.]
I'm sitting in a semi-circle with 4 other nerds... I mean, other high school kids as well as my uber-nerdy teacher advisor who, literally, is the definition of brown.
[This is the same 40something bachelor-only child teacher who, for fun, went on a multi-week trip with his elderly father that followed the exact route of Lewis and Clark and would call his mother every night and address her as President Jefferson before she gave them directions to the next day's stop.]
[I wish I was kidding.]
I have to leave early for a dentist appointment, so I get up, turn around to get my backpack... and notice there is a reddish-brown stain on the chair that I have just exited from.
Yup. That's right.
I quickly tie my J.C. Penney Arizona brand baseball-style jacket around my waist, grab my backpack by the strap, and begin to chatter inanely abt said dentist appointment as my face turned bright red.
Oh, and I'm doing all this while I'm walking backwards from the middle of the room to the door.
This would be the part where I trip over (a) Neil's trombone case and (b) an actual desk chair, while still blathering and blushing, before reaching the door handle and almost running out of the room.
Then I had to sit outside for 15 minutes to wait for my mom to pick me up. When she did so, I told her what had happened, and the first thing she said was, 'Well, untie your jacket! That was expensive!'
She did take momentary pity on me when she called to reschedule the appointment since we did not have time to go home for me to change AND make the appointment... but only momentarily as she told Rosie, the receptionist, WHY she had had to cancel my appointment.
Of course, the team never mentioned my strange behavior or puddle... but it took me a LONG TIME before I was able to look them in the face again without blushing or cringing.
[Ah, good times.]